Mao Motomiya spends most of her time with her neighbors, the Nakamura family, rather than at her own home, as her parents are constantly working for her sake and are rarely home.

When her parents get a divorce and she is conflicted with choosing between them, the eldest son of the Nakamura family, Hiro, suggests for her to live with them. Though secretly glad, Mao rejects the offer and chooses to stay with her father. In spite of moving two stations over, Mao continues to visit the Nakamura family until the death of Hiro's parents... Hiro's younger siblings are taken in by relatives and only Hiro remains in the Nakamura house.

Several years pass, and Mao, now seventeen-years-old, is in high school and lives with her father, her stepmother, and the latter's daughter. She continues to check up on Hiro, who is now twenty-three and has a job as an entry level programmer, every now and then, but the stress of adjusting to her new family life causes Hiro to ask again if she'd like to move in with him. This time, Mao agrees.

The series won the 2014 Kodansha Award for Best Shoujo Series.

This series contains the following tropes:

Abusive Parents: While Mao's parents are never shown physically mistreating her, they do leave her alone for extended periods of time when she is really young and could easily get hurt. Their disregard and neglect of her is also shown as incredibly hurtful to her.

Indifferent Beauty: Mao is gorgeous but hardly seems to notice her looks, or ever use them.

I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Mao would do anything for Hiro. She wants to repay all the kindness he has given to her and the last thing she wants to be is a bother to him... But sometimes she falls under contradictory feelings or actions regarding how to make him happy.

She almost states this word for word in chapter 30.

Chii would wholeheartedly support Mao if she said she liked/wanted to go out with Oda.

May-December Romance: What a romantic relationship between Mao and Hiro would fall into. She is 17 and he is 23, and while they don't have a big age difference he doesn't approve of the idea of a high school girl dating a working man.

Oblivious to Love: Mao is dense even towards her own feelings... she doesn't even notices Oda's until he T-O-L-D her. Hiro seems to be either this or just trying quite strongly to erase any idea of the possibility that what he feels towards Mao might not be brotherly love.

She is also oblivious to Daiki's feelings, he makes he hints quite strongly to her that he is interested, but she doesn't catch on.

One Hour Week: The scenes at school are only of lunch hour, when Mao meets up with Chii and Oda. She is hardly ever seen studying.

Parental Abandonment: Mao's mother said that she'll keep in contact with her... but it's hinted that she never saw her again, and on the other side Mao's father dumped her to somebody else the second he had a chance.

Also the Nakamura siblings, as Hiro's parents died in a car accident.

Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Mao has beautiful long black hair and very nice skin. Part of the reason she gets confessed to so often.

Chihiro tends to act like this in front of her Love Interest, Oda, which results in some trouble with Can Not Spit It Out for a while. Until she does, and it does not go well.

Daiki often displays signs of being one.

Turtle Power: Wakaba seems to be a great comfort of both Hiro and Mao.

Wicked Stepmother: The arrival of Mao's stepmother marked further breach in her relationship with her father. She seems complicit in Mao's exclusion and seems somewhat verbally abusive. She also seems to encourage her own daughter to take over Mao's place in the household.

Subverted. When she finally moved back to her father's place, Mao finds out that she is actually a nice and caring mother once she actually took the time to get to know her.

Workaholic: Mao's parents when she was young, though that was more to avoid seeing each other.

But Kaito, Mao's father, honestly worked a lot after Mao was born so he could provide for his wife and child.

The Nakamura father used to come home late at night, until a teenaged Hiro demanded that they buy a house close to his workplace so that Dad can get home early.

Write What You Know: Mao's cell phone novel "House of the Sun" (under the penname "Kuukai") is basically her living with Hiro, but changing their names (e.g. Mao to Kaoru, Hiro to Takeshi). Hiro doesn't realize this, mistakes the kanji for "Kuukai" as "Sorami," and thinks the novel is by his co-worker Sugimoto because she is rumored to writes novels and he feels as though "Kaoru" is similar to Sugimoto; in reality, Sugimoto is merely a fan of Mao's novel.

Your Cheating Heart: Mao's mother, Yuzu, towards her dad which eventually leads to their divorce.

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